Thursday, October 24, 2013

Thu Oct 24th Todays News

If Obama has to lie about helping a pregnant woman, what can he be relied on? A clue comes from a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore, who claimed PM Abbott was wrong to say that Global Warming wasn't behind Sydney Bush-fires. Actually, Gore claimed Abbott was like one of those who denied the link between smoking and cancer. Gore would know about that, he grew up on a tobacco farm. Gore accepted donations from tobacco companies for years after his sister died from lung cancer. Gore lives denial. Global Warming has paused for fifteen years, so if it were the cause of bush fires in Sydney, why not last year? Or the year before? The truth is the major cause of uncontrollable bush fires is fuel in the bush from lack of controlled burning related to ALP/Green policy. Bob Carr is responsible for the lost houses and people killed, which is worth considering as he resigns from his senate position to resume his extraordinarily large pension. Meanwhile, Obama has authorised Iran's pursuit of nuclear power despite UN advice.
===

Tim Blair – Thursday,October 24,2013 (12:44pm)

The roof of my house is covered in solar panels. When I’m home, I’m a pretty green fellow.

Who isn’t? Most houses, after all, offer very little opportunity to burn tons of jet fuel. Chris Yakymyshyn examines the cost effectiveness of McKibben’s domestic power source:

Bill McKibben’s solar panels in Vermont are indeed avoiding CO2 emissions in Vermont … at a cost of around $155,000 per ton CO2. This is equivalent to paying a carbon tax of $2.00 for one teaspoon of gasoline.

Tim Blair – Thursday,October 24,2013 (12:35pm)

“It’s a common myth and should be dispelled: that if sea ice disappears one season in the Arctic it magically reappears in the next season in the Antarctic. That couldn’t be further from the truth. They are two completely different (climate) systems, responding to (global) warming in different ways.”

So if the ice vanishes, it’s due to global warming. And if it increases, it’s also due to global warming. Interesting.

Well, it’s not my place to get involved in your politics, but it reminds me of politicians here in the United States who got a lot of support from the tobacco companies and who argued to the public that there was absolutely no connection between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer.

And for 40 years the tobacco companies were able to persuade pliant politicians within their grip to tell the public what they wanted them to tell them.

Gore is far better qualified to talk about politicians in the grip of tobacco companies than he is to discuss Australian fires. As the New York Timesreported in 1996:

Six years after Vice President Al Gore’s older sister died of lung cancer in 1984, he was still accepting campaign contributions from tobacco interests. Four years after she died, while campaigning for President in North Carolina, he boasted of his experiences in the tobacco fields and curing barns of his native Tennessee. And it took several years after Nancy Gore Hunger’s death for Mr. Gore and his parents to stop growing tobacco on their own farms in Carthage, Tenn.

Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I’ve hoed it. I’ve dug in it. I’ve sprayed it, I’ve chopped it, I’ve shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it.

Tim Blair – Wednesday,October 23,2013 (4:05pm)

All but two out of the 100 fibreglass dog sculptures planted around the greater Sydney region have been stolen in recent months ...

The sculptures were part of an unusual social experiment conducted by contemporary artists Gillie and Marc Schattner to determine who would steal public art.

The couple spent $500,000 creating the 100 sculptures in six months and then placed them around Sydney – in Cremorne, Mosman, the eastern suburbs and almost as far south as Mittagong. All except those in Mosman were stolen.

Proof of people’s inclination to steal might have been more easily obtained by simply looking at records for car theft.

Mr Schattner … said the pair were lucky to sell art through galleries, which helped cover the cost of the stolen sculptures but they would not be repeating the experiment any time soon.

Tim Blair – Wednesday,October 23,2013 (3:47pm)

The Queensland government has revealed its true colours in determining that bikies in prison should be made to wear pink overalls.

The argument that khaki prison uniforms might provide camouflage for escaping prisoners does not explain why the only alternative colour nominated would be fluoro pink.

Campbell Newman believes the most stigmatising thing he can do to a man in Queensland is to force him to wear the colour most readily associated with femininity. Whom does he hate more: women or bikies?

The government is clearly happy to appropriate the colour pink as a token of sexual ridicule in contempt of the efforts of so many who’ve used the colour to galvanise support for women affected by breast cancer.

The Age, a
bible of the global warming faith, said it was “keen” to get a piece
from Dr David Evans on global warming and the NSW fires.
When he sent it, the paper suddenly couldn’t find room to run it. Read Evans’ excellent piece and learn what might have cooled its ardor.

The ABC can freely run
hours of baseless claims and speculation linking global warming to the
“unprecedented” NSW fires. But activists continue to wage lawfare
against the conservative Alan Jones, even dragging him to tribunals
over his use of perfectly legitimate adjectives:

Radio talk back host Alan Jones is in hot water
again with the media watchdog after breaching the commercial radio code
of practice by making unsubstantiated comments about power station
closures and the salaries of climate change bureaucrats.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority rejected a third
complaint that the Sydney broadcaster got his facts wrong about NBN
rollout costs.
But the regulator was critical of Jones’ use of exaggerated and emotive terms, such as “white elephant” and “disaster”. ”His
delivery was emotional, the language judgemental and hyperbolic, and
the statements lacking in specificity,” ACMA said. All in all, Jones was
deemed to be expressing his opinion, not fact.
Radio 2GB has also been found to be in breach over its failure to
properly respond to two complaints, one of which the station licensee
Harbour Radio Pty Ltd had deemed frivolous.

Jones is being targetted. ACMA is being used to hound someone into
silence whose real sin, it seems to me, is that he is a conservative.
Far wilder reporting by the Left seems to go completely unpunished.

Their verdict was that the 281,492 hectares involved in hazard reduction was “close to the mark”.But
of more relevance should have been was that anywhere near enough given
the massive increases in land put aside as State Forests and National
Parks in recent years.

NSW has more than 20 million hectares of bushfire-prone land; if just
281,492 ha (1.4% of bush fire prone land), of hazard reduction is done
each year, then it would take 71 years to do the entire bush fire prone
land. Which means there would be some land with up to 70 years of fuel
build up if a fire hasn’t been through already.

Until the 1980s the hazard reduction had been to go through bush fire
prone areas about every 6 years (covering about 16%) of bushfire prone
areas. But green tape, bureaucracy, cost cutting and increases in State
Forest and National Parks has meant this has dramatically reduced.

Here in WA the annual burning target is 8% of
the forest – simple arithmetic allows you to calculate that this equates
to a turn-around time of 12 years, which in the jarrah forest is nearly
twice the recommended burning rotation length if summer wildfires are
to be manageable.

The anti-burners have achieved this
irresponsible situation not through special expertise in fire prevention
or suppression, not through being able to put in place an alternative
and equally effective system, but simply by gaining control of
government policy and by the capture of the new forest management
agencies.”

SHOPPING in a weekend market, I spotted a real curio: the last political leader in the country who said no to mad spending.
Yes, there between the prawns and the cheeses was former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, the poor bugger.
Poor bugger, because he said no to big pay rises for public servants, no
to his share of the Gillard Government’s massive Gonski spending on
schools and no to the even more mega-spending on disability even Prime
Minister Tony Abbott agreed to.
Popularity tanked and Baillieu turfed. Ta ta, Ted, replaced by someone who said yes, yes and yes.
And we know what happened to Victoria, too. Thanks largely to Baillieu,
it’s still tipped to reach - well, hello - a $225 million surplus this
year.
Know how frighteningly rare that is among our governments? How weak politicians are to say now to handouts?
Take even the Abbott Government.
(Read full article here.)

Tony Abbott was wrong yesterday to continue
to protect one backside, that of West Australian Liberal Don Randall,
and wrong to say no one has offered practical suggestions for reform.
Randall’s actions don’t pass the sniff test, nor does Abbott’s defence
of him.
MPs could be required to report claims more regularly, say three months
instead of the present six. Real time is problematic given the sometimes
unavoidable to and fro between MPs and bureaucrats over changed flights
and the fact sometimes travel never ends; however, in the interests of
transparency, everything should be posted on the website.
MPs should be required to be more specific about the reason for the
travel, other than to use the catch-all “electorate business”, as
Randall did when he claimed for a visit to Cairns, only to reveal later
that he had bought an investment property there.

Rudd and Julia Gillard’s leadership marked the end of the Whitlam era of
Labor seeking the middle ground. In common with a number of centre-Left
parties around the world, Labor has retreated to a mix of pre-Whitlam
class-war prejudice and inner-city trendyism, overlaid by factional
war-lordism. It is internally obsessed, schizophrenic on policy and
disconnected from the community. Leadership is just one of the
challenges facing Labor. I believe Shorten understands this but his
capitulation to the Left of his party to gain the leadership has
compromised his authority.
There are other deep and unresolved issues Labor and its new leader need
to address. Foremost is Labor’s continuing commitment to make
Australians pay a carbon tax. Labor’s carbon tax was a hit on families
and a hit on jobs. It was clearly rejected by the Australian people. The
Coalition will remove it. Labor will seek to reinstate it. Shorten’s
failure to understand the verdict of the Australian people has
undermined his leadership from the start.

THE Gillard Government died broke yet could still toss one last biscuit to its pet media outlet.
On its deathbed it gave the ABC an extra $10 million, mainly to create a - ho, ho - Fact Checking Unit.
Could the ABC damn well use it? Now, when almost every ABC current
affairs program is exploiting the NSW fires in a fact-free jihad for the
global warming faith?
Some of this preaching is simply clownish.
ABC’s 7.30 starred an academic from the Monash Sustainability Institute
who blamed global warming for confusing the kind of child arsonists
accused of starting some of these fires: “You light it and in the
circumstances that we’ve got at the moment with climate change it gets
away when it probably wasn’t meant to get away.”
But mostly it’s disgraceful. Wall to wall - on Lateline, AM, 7.30, The
Drum, Q&A, Radio National Breakfast, The World Today - we get the
ABC promoting two deceitful notions.
(Read full story here.)

When I wrote in this space a fortnight ago that the political
commentator Andrew Bolt had banned critics from his Channel 10
television program, he replied in typically bellicose fashion.
“Mark Lathan [sic] is a fantasist,” the Dutchman thundered, questioning
why “the Financial Review thinks it should employ him to mislead its
readers”. He declared as “false” any suggestion of critics being
excluded from the Bolt Report. “Name one, Mark,” he challenged me…
I was actually a guest on the first-ever Bolt Report in May 2011, after which I had an open invitation to reappear.
At the time Bolt eulogised me as “a very good columnist”. It was all
going swimmingly until I committed the ideological thought-crime of
disagreeing with Bolt on climate change and the Gillard/Slater &
Gordon controversy.
I was not dealing with someone who handles political disagreement well,
who appreciates the value of public scrutiny. Bolt’s instincts are to
close down opposition, to call for his critics to be sacked and, where
he has sufficient power, to ban them from the media. Thus, in April this
year, he decreed, “I certainly won’t have [Latham] back on my own
show.”

First, I am an Australian-born Australian.
Second, I didn’t not ban Latham for being a critic or for “disagreeing
with [me] on climate change and the Gillard/Slater & Gordon
controversy”. I have had many guests on my show who are critics,
warmists and defenders of Gillard’s role in the Slater & Gordon
controversy, including Bruce Hawker, John McTernan, Will Steffen, Nick
Dyrenfurth, Michael Danby, Richard Marles, Liberty Sanger and on and on.
I did not drop Latham from my show because of his political
opinions or criticisms of me. I actually banned Latham for the reason I
think the Financial Review should sack him: he is vicious, a slanderer and a fantasist.
The quote Latham uses of me declaring I won’t have him on my show actually comes from my blog post about Latham’s astonishing vilification of shadow finance minister Andrew Robb
as a “troubled character” battling “a lifetime of trouble with mental
illness”. Latham claimed Robb’s (successful) battle with depression
made him too unstable to be good at implementing policy, and even
suggested it explained why he was allegedly “promoting wacky plans”.
I considered Latham’s highly personal and unfair attack despicable. It
was not about policy or ideas. It was monstrously unfair and untrue. It
was just Latham making a clown show of himself by mocking someone’s
treated medical condition - and in a way likely to stigmatise other
suffers of depression.
In no way was I “eliminating opposing points of view”. I was refusing to reward a savage for slander.
Latham’s article contains its usual quota of further smears and
falsehoods, of which accusing me of “neo-fascism” is the most shameful. I
wonder again why the Financial Review pays Latham to misinform its readers.

This is embarrassing. Isn’t it the kind of spying only nasty Right-wing politicians do?

German
Chancellor Angela Merkel complained to President Barack Obama on
Wednesday after learning that U.S. intelligence may have targeted her
mobile phone, saying that would be “a serious breach of trust” if confirmed.
For its part, the White House denied that the U.S. is listening in on Merkel’s phone calls now.
“The president assured the chancellor that the United States is not
monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor,”
White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “The United States greatly values
our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security
challenges.”
However, Carney did not specifically say that that U.S. had never monitored or obtained Merkel’s communications.
The German government said it responded after receiving “information
that the chancellor’s cellphone may be monitored” by U.S. intelligence.
It wouldn’t elaborate, but German news magazine Der Spiegel, which has
published material from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, said its research
triggered the response.

SENATOR Bob Carr has committed to another term in federal parliament ... he plans to serve a further six-year term.
“And then I’m going to keep seeking them,” the Foreign Minister and former NSW premier told Sky News this morning.

Bob Carr, yesterday:

I THOUGHT I’d announce today my resignation from the Senate ...
Reporter: In your first speech to the Senate you said, ‘I am enlisted
for the duration.’ In June this year you said you had plans to serve a
further six-year term and then went on to say, ‘I’m going to keep
seeking them’. Given what you’ve just told us, is what you’ve previously
said not true and was this only ever a temp job for you?
Carr: I think Alan Greenspan sums it up best with the expression he uses, ‘irrational exuberance’.

The ABC finally
interview a real fire expert - Phil Cheney, former head of the CSIRO’s
Bushfire Research Unit - who dismisses the ABC’s theory that the NSW
fires are linked to global warming.
But note: the interview does not occur on any of the ABC’s current
affairs programs, which are so frantically pushing the climate change
angle. Cheney’s comments come on ABC Classic FM, in between a discussion with Margaret Throsby on his favorite recordings. (Listen from 5.40.)

ANNABEL CRABB: Mr Gore, we’re also having something
of a national debate about the connection between climate change and
bushfires and the Australian Prime Minister has said in the last couple
of hours that bushfires are a function of life in Australia and nothing
to do with climate change. What do you make of those remarks?
AL GORE: Well, it’s not my place to get involved in your politics, but
it reminds me of politicians here in the United States who got a lot of
support from the tobacco companies and who argued to the public that
there was absolutely no connection between smoking cigarettes and lung
cancer. And for 40 years the tobacco companies were able to persuade
pliant politicians within their grip to tell the public what they wanted
them to tell them.

What a filthy smear. If Gore has no evidence of Abbott being on the take
from oil companies he should apologise for this defamatory analogy, as
should the ABC.
But throughout this interview, Gore is not once questioned on his absurd claims:

And bushfires can occur naturally, and do, but the science shows clearly
that when the temperature goes up and when the vegetation and soils dry
out, then wildfires become more pervasive and more dangerous. That’s
not me saying it, that’s what the scientific community says.

But what the scientific community also says is that the world’s atmosphere has not warmed for 15 years.
But Gore is not grilled on that, or on his false claim that Hurricane Sandy was linked to global warming:

And here in the United States, we had an event called Hurricane Sandy
that was devastating - US$60 billion in damages and it caused a dramatic
change in the message the public was sending to politicians in both
parties.

Wind energy, for example, in Australia is now very competitive with
electricity-based on coal. And all around the world, electricity from
solar energy is becoming competitive with coal-based electricity.

What a farce. This is not reporting but misleading. Not informing but propagandising.
What chance the ABC’s Media Watch covers this?

1 b 2 a and if I were a magpie, I'd leave a deposit on a luxury car .. any luxury car. I didn't do the working out for q 2 .. it is the solution to a Pythagorean equation the square root of < (6400+102)squared minus 6400 squared> .. ed===

Lefties, I'm looking right at you..>It doesn't just hijack it .. it sucker punches, then guts the unconscious body. It defenestrates the soul. It robs it of all possessions and then sends an invoice backed by tax collectors. - ed
===

tion of the evil eye. (It is acceptable to compliment a child if the comment is prefaced by praise for God, as an act of humility.)

In order to ward off the evil eye, parents of a thoughtlessly praised child may ask the person who gave the compliment to immediately spit in the child's face. Because the momentarily exalted youngster has been brought down a peg, any harm by the evil eye is unnecessary; this spittle salve is harmless yet insulting enough to negate the compliment.>
===

PRAY ALONG.Father,I thank You so much for Your goodness and faithfulness in my life.I thank you for the work your Children are doing all over the world.I thank You for the gift of partnership. Thank You that we can stand together stronger and more effective in building Your kingdom. Your Word says that when we dwell together in unity, You command blessings. Today I receive that blessing as I follow Your command.I know that Your hand of favor is upon me. I know that You are leading me and guiding me in victory. Keep me close to You as I surrender every area of my heart and mind to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.

=

If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction(Psalm 119:92, NIV)

If it had not been for the goodness of God, where would you be? Some wouldn’t be alive today. Some would still be addicted. If it had not been for God’s favor some would still be struggling, barely making it. You may say, “Well I’ve got a long way to go.” And that may be true, but I want you to take a moment and look back over your life and realize how far you’ve come. The same God that brought you this far, the same God that has kept you alive is going to carry you through any difficulty you may be facing. The key is to just start praising and thanking Him for His goodness. Thank Him for His favor and blessing upon you. Praise precedes the victory. Praise brings the walls of opposition down. Praise is the invitation for God to intervene on your behalf.

Today, I declare that the goodness of God is all over you. He is directing your steps, and you are following His leading. I declare that your best days are ahead, and as you praise Him and thank Him, you will move forward into the victory and blessing that He has prepared for you.God bless you.

===THE BENEFACTORS OF MANKIND by Prof. Paul Eidelberg═══════════════ ✡ ═══════════════No nation has been a greater benefactor of mankind than Israel and America—the one endowed humanity with spiritual freedom, the other with political freedom. Alfred North Whitehead, perhaps the world’s greatest philosopher of science and civilization, related these two blessings by saying: “The Jews are the first people that refused to worship the State.” This he could rightly say because the Jews taught mankind that there exists an Authority higher than the State—a revolutionary idea!This revolutionary idea was dramatically manifested in 1776, when the American people issued their theologically-inspired Declaration of Independence. This primary foundational document of the United States acknowledges God in four ways: as the Creator, as the Author of the Laws of Nature, as the Supreme Judge, and as the Providential Benefactor of mankind, hence, as the ultimate Source of Plenitude and Justice.Mankind is also indebted to America for its brilliant method of achieving wealth and justice by means of a Constitution whose system of institutional checks and balances secures the Declaration’s sacred ends of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”The Constitutionsl system secures the dignity of the individual by fostering private enterprise on the one hand, and by limiting the powers of government on the other.This grand idea was first conceived not by John Locke or Adam Smith or Montesquieu but by the Hebrew Republic of antiquity. Enough to cite Harvard President Samuel Langdon, a Christian Hebraist who, at outbreak of the American Revolution, recommended the ancient Hebrew Republic—shorn of its ceremonial laws—as an excellent model for the emerging government of the United States. (Sadly, during the past 100 years, this portrait of American history has been eradicated from “higher learning”—a mark of profound ingratitude, the first sin of mankind, according to the Sages of Israel).Now the question arises: if Israel and America have been the greatest benefactors of mankind, why is it that neither nation enjoys a “good press” in the world at large? The obvious answer is envy. This envy, however, is a manifestation of ingratitude—precisely the sin of which both nations are guilty insofar as both have more or less abandoned their Biblical heritage. “Measure for measure” is one of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” or of Divine Providence.The lesson is clear: The benefactors of mankind must not forget their ultimate Benefactor.◙✔ Like ✔ Comment ✔ Share the Kosher Culture Foundation ✡www.facebook.com/KosherCulture[image via www.jewlicious.com]
===

===
<Ya’alon: We destroyed a Syrian gun. Iran will not rescind its nuclear optionDEBKAfile October 23, 2013, 1:24 PM (GMT+02:00)Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Wednesday: “Israel is watching the Syrian war and will not permit chemical weapons to reach hostile hands or allow any breach of Israel’s sovereignty on the Golan.” The minister spoke at a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. He went on to say that the upsurge of Palesginian terrorism on the West Bank is cause for concern, and the IDF is ready to deal with any escalation. Turning to Iran, Ya’alon asserted that Tehran has no intention of relinquishing its nuclear option and will contrive to preserve its capacity for uranium enrichment. “Tehran is cheating the world,” he said and stressed that Israel stands ready to defend itself by itself.The defense minister did not say on what occasion Israel destroyed a Syrian gun. Last Monday, two mortar rounds from a battle on the Syrian side exploded on the Israeli Golan. It caused no casualties.>===

The IDNS is a daily roundup of everything you need to know about how the media is covering Israel, all in one place for easy reference, delivered directly to your inbox every morning. Want to receive weekly Bias Alerts? Manage your subscriptions. Please tell your friends to learn more and sign up here.

Join more than 150,000 people demanding fair media coverage. HonestReporting was formed in 2000 to respond to unfair coverage against Israel in the wake of the second Intifada. Since then, it's prompted hundreds of corrections and retractions. Stay informed on all media issues by signing up to HR's weekly bias alert emails.

===

Friend,

In order to continue fighting for our conservative values, I need to raise $50,000 in the next three days.

You've heard me talk about being "all in" if we are to change what's happening in this country.

I am:

All in to change the culture in Hollywood.

All in to change policy in Washington.

All in to elect strong conservatives.

And all in to take America back!

That's why we are kicking off a $50,000 "All In" Money Bomb. Patriot Voices is committed to changing what is happening to our country, we can only do it if we have the resources to carry out our message on line, on TV and on the ground.

This year has already been absolutely packed.

Patriot Voices rallied conservatives for the Late-Term Abortion ban in Texas and against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

I am all in to fight back against business as usual in Washington and against the harmful messages impacting our culture coming out of Hollywood.

That's why I became CEO of EchoLight Studios so I could face head-on the challenges that entertainment presents to us. EchoLight distributes high-quality, faith-based, family friendly films that are making a difference in our culture.

If we want to change our country's future, we have to tackle our country's challenges from every angle.

And at Patriot Voices, our efforts are fighting the political battles at every step.

Your phone calls and emails and personal visits have made a real impression on the political establishment. Patriot Voices is one of the most effective and efficient conservative organizations in America.

We are a true "people-powered" movement.

However, with 2014 approaching and so many critical issues being considered by Congress right now, we need to be able to do so much more.

We don't have fancy offices and a huge staff. We don't have a few special interests that write us giant checks.

We rely on small grassroots donors like you to help us pay for the phone banks, ads, and media events that make a difference.

That's why this "All In" Money Bomb is so critically important.

Even "people-powered" grassroots activism can be expensive, and right now is a critical time for our country.

1945 – The UN Charter, the constitution of the United Nations, entered into force after being ratified by the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a majority of the other signatories.

1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials.

Morning

Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked no more with him; but what reason have you to make a change? Has there been any reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient? He appeals to you this morning--"Have I been a wilderness unto you?" When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have you not up till now found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to you, and has not simple faith in him given you all the peace your spirit could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present, can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or with the severer trials within the Church, we find it a most blessed thing to pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have today that we are saved in him; and if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun till we find a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall appear; and, since this can never be, we will hold him with a grasp immortal, and bind his name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future, can you suggest anything which can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny, or desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be long--he changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed in our sickness? When we die, is it not written that "neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" We say with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

Evening

When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more wakeful than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travellers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters. Christian went not to sleep when lions were in the way, or when he was wading through the river, or when fighting with Apollyon, but when he had climbed half way up the Hill Difficulty, and came to a delightful arbour, he sat down, and forthwith fell asleep, to his great sorrow and loss. The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes, laden with fragrant odours and soft influences, all tending to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan's description: "Then they came to an arbour, warm, and promising much refreshing to the weary pilgrims; for it was finely wrought above head, beautified with greens, and furnished with benches and settles. It had also in it a soft couch, where the weary might lean." "The arbour was called the Slothful's Friend, and was made on purpose to allure, if it might be, some of the pilgrims to take up their rest there when weary." Depend upon it, it is in easy places that men shut their eyes and wander into the dreamy land of forgetfulness. Old Erskine wisely remarked, "I like a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil." There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted. The distressed soul does not sleep; it is after we enter into peaceful confidence and full assurance that we are in danger of slumbering. The disciples fell asleep after they had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain top. Take heed, joyous Christian, good frames are near neighbours to temptations: be as happy as you will, only be watchful.

Today's Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 1-2

1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3 and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

The Call of Jeremiah

4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I set you apart;I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

6 “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant....”

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Timothy 3

Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons

1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

8 In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. 9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons....

Translate

Subscribe To

Followers

Translator

About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..